Max Verstappen believes that Red Bull have “quite a bit of work to do” in order to consistently compete with their rivals at the front of the field, but praised the team for the foundation they built over pre-season testing.
The Dutchman narrowly missed out on claiming his fifth title to McLaren’s Lando Norris last season, ending up just two points short after he launched a mighty comeback over the course of the year.
Asked ahead of the opening event at the Albert Park Circuit about his hopes of Red Bull’s competitive level, Verstappen said: “We had quite a decent pre-season. It’s been a big learning curve but we’ve been running well, been doing a lot of laps, so there’s not actually a lot we could’ve wished for that could’ve gone better.
“In terms of performance, I don’t know. I think we still have quite a bit of work to do to be up at the front but this is also something that I had already planned for it to be like that.
“I just try to do my best and, like I said before, we are positive and happy with what we have done so far, but we also know that if we really want to fight up front, we need to be faster. That’s what we will work on.”
In regards to his approach for the first round, he added: “I’m here to do my job and see how it is. I’m very relaxed. I just want to have a decent weekend and hopefully score a decent amount of points. That’s the target, and the rest, we’ll see how that evolves over time.”
While every team must learn the intricacies of their new power units, Red Bull faced the extra challenge of building their own for the first time under their Powertrains division, established after Honda announced their intentions to end their partnership.
“It’s been a really nice project to see how it came about and the development over the last four years,” Verstappen explained on Red Bull’s powertrains project, alongside Ford. “It was honestly a really proud moment when I jumped in the car.
“Things can always go better but things can also go a lot worse, and I think our starting point is very good and we can be very happy and satisfied with that. Of course, the racers inside of us and the team that is here to fight for wins always want more.
“We need to be better and that is always the target. That’s not me being critical, it’s just how we are as a team that we always want to be better. That’s what we are focusing on now.”
Aside from the new regulations, another major change at the Milton Keynes outfit is the arrival of Isack Hadjar, who was promoted from sister team Racing Bulls to partner Verstappen.
The 21-year-old impressed in his rookie season with a podium at the Dutch Grand Prix and regular points finishes, but his experience at the Australian track in his first F1 race was one to forget – in challenging weather conditions, he crashed on the formation lap and was forced to retire the car.
Reflecting on what will hopefully be a better round this time, he said: “I’m happy to be fighting for better results this year. It’s definitely exciting and it’s a brand new journey, so I’m honestly just looking forward to our improvement over the year.
“I can expect points normally, but that’s not really what we want. To be fair, if we finish the race, considering reliability might be tricky for every team, it’s still a very good start.
“I think we have a good race car so I’m obviously aiming for a podium but let’s see. I’m not sure where we stand.”
